The Missionary

re or less completely given over to joyously boisterous troops of undergraduates and 'Varsity men of all academic ranks

most capacity, and lusty-voiced undergraduates joined enthusiastically, if not altogether tunefully, in the choruses of the songs; but the enthusiasm was perhaps highes

ey to Mortlake burst out anew from pit and gallery, circles and stalls and boxes. Cambridge had won for once after a long series of defeats, but the Oxford

y silent and yet life-like phantoms flitting across the screen. It was only when the finish had faded into swift darkness and the thunders of applause had begun to die down that he be

dear" in a feminine voice. He wrenched his foot free, and turned round just in t

ttraction of the evening had passed, and a g

ve her as much room as you can, please," he said lou

ne of his own college chums at Balliol who had come in with him said, "Take her to the bar, Maxwell, a

his time, and so a lane was easily made to the nearest bar. The girl o

getting all right now. It was the crowd and the h

l. "Come and let me give you a drop o

other and smiled, and women looked at them and each other, also smiling, but with plainer meaning, and

nd a split soda for himself and his companion. Two men sitting at one of the tables

his with a glance towards the girl which brought the blood to Maxwel

I'm glad you won, it was getting a bit monotonous. Thanks for letting us have

her which Maxwell did not altogether like. "We

se of a P. and O. liner about ten years before, and, without exactly knowing why, he felt as if it

haven't been waiting. You sho

r and smiling over it at him. "Well, here's luck! It was awfully good of you to get

ly too happy-I mean I was very glad I was the

er too rapidly for that. But now, as he put his glass down and began to scrutinize the half-saucy, half-demure, and al

softer, and were shaded by longer and darker lashes than his, but their colour and expression were very similar. The rest of the face, too

skilled physiognomist would have put her down at the first glance as a young lady of very decided character; but the outlines were softer, the lips were more delicate and more mobile, and,

brandy and soda. "Now, I mustn't keep you from your friends

neatly-gloved little hand that sh

e here with a lot of our fellows to see the Biograph, and I shan't stop now that's over. I'm getting joll

ere spoken with perfect politeness, and although she had heard them scores of times before

his well-groomed, athletic-looking young fellow who had already done her a considerable service, who was ob

be, to say the least of it, ungracious; so, after a moment's hesitation,

r. Where were you thinking of going? Suppose we were to try the grill-room at the Troc. Of course everywhere will be pretty crowded to-night,

in a few minutes more they were rolling

his college boat, and had worked her four places up the river. In another year he might be in the 'Varsity Eight itself, and help to avenge the defeat which the Dark Blues had just suffered. The sweetheart he had won in that Hom

chance, but he didn't, and she liked him all the better for it. He did, however, put his hand through her arm and draw her just a

u came. I feel just in the humour fo

toss of her head; "but how do you kno

else," he laughed. "You are f

s you know nice? Don't you find some of them horribl

ed. "Then you have a prett

went on with a swift change of tone, "Don't you see that a-a girl like me has got to

ow as though she didn't want him to see the expression

momentary resentment. He knew, of course, that it was the "brutal truth," but just then he disliked being reminded of it-especially by her. She seemed a great deal too nice for th

ut brutal truths ju

he still kept her head turned away. The

uck you yet that we're

lf?" she said, half gravely, and yet wit

course," he replied, and before the conversation could procee

nd, with the astute alacrity of his kind, had taken possession of them and pre-empted the table before anyone else could get near it. There were, in fact, others waiting who ha

all right, sir. This is

sat down. "These fellows here know which side their brea

said Maxwell, "and now I suppose the q

left behind by their predecessors. The girl looked up at him with a

r supper, Fritz

, and a nice little porterhouse st

"Yes, I think that will do very nicely. Let's have t

ertainly. An

d, opened, of course,

zzy, won't you?" he said,

e said, "only I don't want you

hen he told the waiter to bri

n his errand Maxwell sa

her pretty well, but we've not exactly been introd

that I live in," she said with a little flush. "Of cours

tly what she meant, and he was perfectly well aware that she would not have accepted his invitation to supper any more than she would have been in the promenade of a music hall unescorted if she h

that you're a gentleman." Mingled with it there may also have been a dash of masculine vanity. The more he looked at the girl the more striking did her likeness to himsel

nd their cheeks flushed in a somewhat boy-and-girli

ntroduce ourselves, I suppose.

t a sham one either, such as a lot of girls like me take. It's my own-a

the oysters came and the waiter opened the wine. When he had f

say so without flattering myself too much, be so much like each other. At any rate I shall venture t

ass. "And now that we've been introduced in a sort of way, as we haven't got any more interest

found it quite impossible to resist the strange charm of Miss Carol's manner. She was obviously a lady by instinct, and she had also been educated after a sort. She had read

father. She explained further that at the mature age of thirteen she had run away from a French school in which she had been placed by some unknown agency and joined a wandering English circus-troop with which she had travelled half over Europe, leading a more or less miserabl

ite sober," she said pathetically,

humour and such a vivacity of expression and gesture that, despite the under-note of

perhaps also a trifle freer, although Miss Carol never permitted herself any of those freedoms of expression with which too many of the so-called Daughters

gh of this stuff, nice and all as it is-at least, I have, and I think I'm more used to it than you. A coffee and liqueur

"Surely you're not going to accuse me of the unpardon

to your eyes, a sort of dancing, jumping yellow flame that makes them look almost red. Well, your eyes are almost exactly like mine, and mine are like my mother's, and whenever she'd got so far on with drink that she couldn't stop I used to s

and she spoke so earnestly that it was impossible to be offended with her. Moreover, although he was far from even getting drunk, he felt a dreamy sensation steal

in me. But I feel quite curiously happy, and I believe I could just go on drinking and getting hap

go on-of course, there was no one to stop her. You should have seen her a couple of days after-a savage, an animal, a wild beast, only wild beasts don't get drun

e said, pouring his cognac into his coffee. "This is the last drink to-ni

id. "They close at twelve to-nigh

or the bill. "By the way, I was going to ask you-I hope you ha

irst question in

me so that I went 'T.T.' for nearly a month, and just now I wouldn't drink a

of shillings on the plate which the waiter presented, and took up his bill. Then he got up

't answered my

" she said, turn

out a bit later?" he replied rather haltingly.

hing hotly. "I'm afraid that's impossible. But go and get your

hen they got out into the street he took her by the

e, Miss Carol. I thought just now

e; "and that's just why, or partly why-and besides, we'r

never had a sister. I am an only child, and my mother died soo

ll, it's no use-I couldn't, I daren't. Besides, have you forgotten what you were telling me about your fight on the steame

ou've taught me to-night, Miss Carol, and I shan't forget either them or you. Still, I don't see why w

ppose if we're going to be friends I may call you Vane-although I think I could get to like you very much in one way, however different things were, I don't believe I could ever fall in love with you. B

Well, that's a bargain, and now perhaps y

lle Gardens, Brook Green, with a very nice girl t

live in Warwick Gardens, a bit this side of Addison Bridge, so if you really mean to

e, and I think that would b

han he had ever done in his life before, and if he had been alone he might have yielded to it; but he was ashamed to do so after what he had just said to her, so he hailed an empty cab that was just coming up to the

Don't forget to s

gesture from Miss Carol brought him into the cab. There was an angry flush on her cheeks and a wicked light in her eyes, but she said very quietly, "Do you know

father was a soldier in India, and did some very good service. He has a staff appointment at home. He's a baronet too-one of the old on

" said Miss Carol, leaning back in the cab. "And now

and he said good-night, he asked her for a kiss. She blu

d rather not, at least not just yet. You see, after all we've only known each other two or three hour

," he laughed, as he got out. "In fact, you

up and saw her pretty laughing face as the light of a lamp fell upon it. He stopped almost as suddenly as though he had run up against some invisible obstacle, and passed h

ul. What a marve